A country house burglar who took porcelain worth £1m in one raid and was found with a £200,000 clock taken in another was jailed for nine years on Friday.

Graham Harkin tried to claim a £25,000 reward for returning the 300-year-old clock stolen from Levens Hall in Cumbria and thought he was dealing with an agent of its real owner. But the exchange at a service station on the M62 was with a police officer and, when Harkin was arrested, officers found the clock in the boot of his BMW.

This week at Carlisle crown court, he also admitted burgling Firle Place in East Sussex to steal 18th-century Sevres porcelain worth more than £1m.